Sunday, Oct 28, 2012

Well...I guess I sort of fell off the wagon this semester!  Don't worry...I still did all my packet work; I just kept forgetting (AND did not have time) to write in my blog.  I will write a series that backtrack so I get in at least one blog for each of the four packets I have already turned it.  But, for this one, I will just say how much I love my advisor this semester.  Her name is Reiko Rizzuto, and she is awesome!!!  She writes nonfiction and fiction.  She is so thorough and helpful with all her feedback.  Instead of picking apart a sentence, as my last advisor often did, she looks at the whole picture/story that I am weaving.  Her feedback is that from a reader's perspective, so I have a great idea of how a reader sees what I am presenting.  Furthermore, she does an awesome job of exlaining her reasoning of why something does or does not work.  So, not only do I know it isn't working...but I understand why.  If my writing succeeds, I owe it to her!  Okay...so I won't go on and on (although I could) about her. One more thing that I want to mention in this blog is how overwhelming this semester has been.  In order to pay my bills, I am teaching classes at both Stark State and The University of Akron.  I am teaching a total of 5 classes, so I feel a little crazy right now.  It is way too much!  I think I will have to cut back next semester if I want to keep my sanity.  Well, I will at least leave you with a small peek of my novel.  This will be from my last packet, but I will still post some from previous packets.

She rushed to the bathroom and turned on the faucet after slamming the vodka bottle on the sink counter.  She used the fingernail from her right pointer finger to dig the dirt from each nail, meticulously scraping under them one by one.  It was thick, as she imagined.  Almost completely black, like dirt from deep inside the earth, fresh and moist.  She had only finished three fingers when she moved to the toilet, lifted the lid, and vomited.  Then she went back to the sink, washed down the remnant of vomit with more vodka, and finished cleaning the rest of the nails while she watched the dirt mix with water and muddy before disappearing into the drain.